The Shining Badge (8 page)

Varek well knew that housekeeping was not his strong point, but he had plunged in with a vigor that marked everything he
did. He had attacked the house in sections, cleaning out one bedroom and setting it up for himself with a bed for Jamie in the same room. Then he had launched the main crusade, which was to clean up the kitchen. He was thankful enough that there was some indoor plumbing, although he’d had to replace the well pump, and having electricity brought to the house had been a major expense.

As he sat there thinking of chores to do, he realized that he was weary. He was a strong man, but he had not known how hard housekeeping was until it all fell on him. The cooking, the washing, what ironing was done, cleaning the house inside and making repairs outside kept him busy from early morning until night.

A sudden creaking sound startled him, and he whirled quickly, his hand going to his belt. The gun was not there as he was accustomed to, and when he saw that it was merely the screen door moved by the wind, he relaxed and took a sip of coffee. “You’ve gotta stop being so edgy.” He spoke the words aloud, and the sound of his own voice seemed to startle him. He forced himself to be still, and then as he finished his coffee, he heard Jamie crying. He got up and went to the bedroom, moving over to the half bed he had fixed for her. Her face was flushed, he saw, and when he put his hand on her forehead, he was startled at how high her fever was.

“I don’t feel good,” Jamie whimpered.

Varek made up his mind immediately. “I expect we’d better take you to see the doctor.” She was wearing few clothes, for she had been hot, and there was no fan in the room. He put a dress on her, slipped her shoes on, and then left the house. He put her inside the used Chevrolet, but when he tried to start it, he found the battery was dead.

He sat there frustrated, then shook his head. “Come on, Jamie, we’ll have to walk.”

“All the way?” the child asked. Her face was very flushed, and fear touched Clay. He knew little about children, especially about childhood diseases. “It’ll be all right,” he said.
“Somebody will pick us up. Come along, now.” Picking up the child, he stepped out of the car and started down the road. It was a good six miles to town, but traffic was fairly common, and he was hopeful someone would pick them up quickly. But there was a natural glumness in Clay Varek as if he always expected the worse and was rarely disappointed. In the back of his mind he was already planning to make the entire walk, and grimly he set himself to the task.

Jenny saw the pair as she drove along the highway. She recognized Varek and the child and pulled up behind them. She watched as he turned, and when he came to stand outside her window, she said, “Where are you going?”

“I’ve got to go to the doctor. Jamie’s sick.”

“Well, get in. I’ll take you there.” She saw him hesitate and knew that he was not a man who took favors easily, but he nodded and said curtly, “Thanks.” He went around and got in, and once the truck was moving, she asked, “When did she get sick?”

“Just yesterday. Just a little fever, but it’s higher today, I think. I don’t have any way to take it.”

“Which doctor do you want to go to?”

“I don’t know any of them.”

“We use Dr. Peturis. He’s a little bit rough, but he’s a kind man. I’ve heard he’s good with children.”

“Take me there if you don’t mind.” He hesitated, then said, “Sorry to be such trouble.”

“You’re not from around here, are you, Mr. Varek?”

“No, you can tell from my voice, I guess.”

“Yes, we’re from New York, so we all have northern accents. It makes it a bit hard.”

As she drove along, Jenny offered a little of her history, and then finally she said, “I’d take Jamie to my stepmother. She’s very good with anyone who’s sick, but she just had some babies herself.”

“Babies?”

“Yes, triplets.”

Clay suddenly smiled, and as Jenny watched him, she saw it made him look much younger. “One is all I can handle.” He hesitated, then said, “It’s hard on a man raising a child without a woman.”

Jamie looked up, though her face was flushed. “You do fine, Daddy.”

Varek hugged the child and laughed shortly. “Well, it would be better if you had a mama.”

Jenny kept waiting for him to say more about his wife, but he seemed to steer away from anything so personal. He did say finally, “That was a good squash pie.”

Jenny laughed. “It’s the only kind I know how to cook. I’m having to learn how to live in the country. I’ve always been a city girl.”

“I’ll have to learn too. I’m from Chicago.”

“You lived there all your life?”

“Quite a bit of it. Including the last ten years.” He said no more, and the conversation was rather bland until Jenny pulled up in front of Dr. Peturis’s office. “There’s the doctor’s office. Why don’t you take Jamie in? I’ll do my errand, then run you home again.”

Varek shook his head. “I hate to be a burden to anybody.”

“Don’t be silly. That’s what neighbors are for.” She reached over and brushed the hair back from Jamie’s face. “You go on in with your daddy now, and I’ll be back. And you’ll be well soon.”

Jenny waited until Varek and the child were inside; then she drove to Luke Dixon’s office. She entered and found that Dixon was engaged in conversation with a tall, rawboned farmer. She waited in the outside room until the farmer left, and Dixon said, “Come on in, Miss Winslow.”

“You can call me Jenny.”

“Fine, and I’m Luke.”

“What about Noah?”

Dixon shook his head. “They’re going to charge him with assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.”

“What will that mean if he’s found guilty?”

“It’ll mean going back to prison, maybe for as much as five years.”

“But he didn’t do it!”

Luke Dixon studied the young woman before him, noting the richness of her lips, which were now pressed together almost willfully. Her hair was thick and red with golden lights that gleamed under the overhead lights. He was conscious of the full, soft lines of her body within her dress. Her face was a mirror, he noted, that changed as her feelings changed, the features reflecting the swift changes of her mind.

“Can you help him, Luke?”

“I can try, but you’ll have to testify that he didn’t start the trouble. I can tell you right now that won’t make you very popular, challenging a white man’s word. Two white men, as a matter of fact, over the fate of a black man.”

“What about you?”

“I’m not popular anyway,” he laughed. He smiled then, and she admired the strong bone structure of his face. “Why are you helping him?”

“I just like lost causes. I’ve got the scars to show for it.” Luke suddenly said, “You’re not married, are you?”

“No.”

“Got a steady boyfriend who’d beat me up if I asked you out?”

The question obviously amused Jenny, and she laughed in a way he found very attractive, her chin tilting up and her lips curving in pretty lines. “No boyfriend at all.”

“That’s good. I’ll pick you up at seven.”

“You’re pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

“Actually I’m pretty shy, and I have to put on this act to make people think I’m outgoing.”

Luke could almost see a curtain of reserve fall away, and a teasing expression of gaiety lit her eyes. Luke decided at that moment that Jenny Winslow was a complex and striking woman.

“All right, pick me up at seven,” she said. “You’ll have to come in and meet the family. There’s quite a bunch of us.”

“I’ll wear my graduation suit,” he smiled. “We’ll talk about the case tonight.”

“All right, Luke . . . and thanks.” She put out her hand, and he looked at it for a moment, then took it. He squeezed it firmly but not hard as he nodded.

“Seven o’clock it is.”

Jenny left the office feeling pleased. She had not given romance much thought since leaving New York. There it had been her chief topic of conversation and the center of her thoughts, but it had only rarely entered her mind since moving to Georgia. But she liked Luke Dixon and was looking forward to the evening.

Going back to the doctor’s office, she walked into the waiting room and, seeing no sign of Varek and Jamie, figured they were in with the doctor. There was no nurse to ask, and three other patients were waiting, so she simply sat and waited with them. After a short time Varek came out carrying Jamie. He had a slip of paper in his hand, and his eyes sought hers at once.

“What is it, Clay?”

He did not answer but nodded at the door. She went outside, and as soon as they were clear of the office, he said, “It’s the flu, but the doctor doesn’t think it’s dangerous.” Relief flooded his face, and she saw how tense he had been.

“Is that a prescription?”

“Yes. You know where the drugstore is?”

“Sure. Come on.”

She took Varek to the drugstore and stayed with Jamie while he went inside. She found the child, despite her discomfort, was bright and very intelligent. Jenny was tempted to ask about her mother, but she clamped down on that impulse with restraint.

Varek came out, got into the truck, and nodded. She started the engine, and neither of them spoke until they were out of
town. As the Studebaker rumbled over the road, he turned and faced her. “I’ve been hearing talk about you.”

“What kind of talk?”

“That you’re taking on the powers that be.”

“Oh, you mean about Noah Valentine.”

“Yes. Why are you doing it?”

She did not answer for a time, and then she turned and looked at him, removing her eyes from the road for a moment. “Because it’s the right thing to do,” she said firmly.

Varek watched her as she drove along, admiring her profile and thinking,
She is the kind of woman who won’t back down from a just fight.
It was a way he had of summing up people, and he always respected those with enormous certainty and a positive will. There was fire in this girl that made her lovely, and he found himself drawn to her.

She turned to face him and said, “Do you think it’s wrong? You think I shouldn’t do it?”

“That’s up to you.” He got out of the truck then, took Jamie, and leaned over and for a moment studied Jenny’s face. “But you can get hurt doing the right thing—I can tell you that from experience. Thanks for the ride.”

“I’ll come by and see how Jamie’s doing tomorrow,” she called out after him. Jamie waved over his shoulder, and Jenny waved back, then started the truck. As she drove toward home, she thought about what Varek had said:
“A person can get hurt doing the right thing.”
A stubbornness rose in her, and she said, “I may get hurt, but I’m going to do what I think is right!”

CHAPTER FIVE

Promise to a Mother

Glancing up at the calendar that hung from her bedroom wall, Jenny noted that it was the first day of June. She also noted the year, 1932, and said under her breath, “I despise that calendar!”

“What’s wrong with it?” Kat asked. She had come in to watch Jenny dress for her date with Luke Dixon. She sat flat on the floor with her arms around Stonewall, who occasionally turned to lick her face. “I think it’s pretty.”

“It belongs in a garage somewhere. It’s a girlie calendar. The only reason it’s here is because it was free.” The calendar pictured a shapely young woman who was trying to climb over a fence and in the process was exposing more than was appropriate of her lovely legs.

“Why doesn’t she just jump over the fence?” Kat asked, pulling at Stonewall’s ears. “It’d be easier than gettin’ all caught up on it.”

“Oh, it’s just a silly calendar. I’m going to get a good one someday. One with a little more decorum.”

“What’s decorum?”

Jenny was finishing the process of dressing and said impatiently, “Don’t you ever get tired of asking questions, Kat?”

“How am I going to learn if I don’t ask questions?”

“Well, decorum means that a thing fits right in its place. Like you wouldn’t wear a swimming suit to church. That wouldn’t be the proper decorum.”

“And you wouldn’t wear that dress you got on to go
swimming.” Kat found this picture hilarious and laughed, rolling on the floor and pulling the dog down with her.

Jenny could not help but smile at the pair. Then she stood before the mirror and examined herself critically. Most of her city clothing had been sold to raise money to leave New York, and she had not bought a dress since. She had saved only a few of her nicer dresses, and now she examined the one she was wearing, wondering if it would do for Summerdale, Georgia. The aqua dress was actually a two-piece outfit made up of a matching skirt and jacket. The skirt had an embroidered front and inverted pleats. The loose-fitting jacket had elbow-length sleeves and a low neckline, which revealed the ivory blouse underneath. The black patent-leather shoes she wore were mildly scuffed and seemed too dark to go with such a light-colored dress. She sighed. “It will have to do.”

Kat said, “You look real pretty, Jenny.”

“Why, thank you, Kat.” Walking over to Kat, she kissed her on the cheek, ruffled her hair, and then said quickly to the dog, “Get away from me, Stonewall. I don’t want you shedding on my dress.”

“Jenny, what’s Luke Dixon like?”

“He’s like a lawyer.”

“I know that, but what does he look like?”

“Oh, he’s tall, about six feet, and he’s got blond hair and light blue eyes.”

“Is he handsome like Doug Fairbanks Jr.?”

“No, not at all.”

Kat continued to pepper her with questions concerning her date, and finally she said, “Are you going to let him kiss you good-night when he brings you home?”

Jenny laughed aloud and shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s not proper to let a man kiss you on your first date.”

“Can he kiss you on the second date, then?”

“I don’t know if there’s going to be a second date,” Jenny said. She suddenly heard the sound of a car coming down the driveway and ran over to the window. Kat accompanied
her, and Stonewall reared up and put his huge paws on the windowsill, staring out with the two women. “It’s him,” Kat said.

“I guess it is,” Jenny agreed.

“I’ll go down and let him in while you finish dressing.”